Part III Chapter 2 Doctor Dolittle's Circus by Hugh Lofting
TO THE SEA BY RIVER
As they had expected, John Dolittle and Sophie now found that the worst part of their troublesome traveling was over. For one thing, the constant anxiety of being seen worried them no longer. If they met any one on the banks of the stream Sophie just ducked under water till the danger was past, while the Doctor pretended he was fishing, with a willow wand for rod and a piece of string for line.
They still had a long way to go. The journey north to Talbot's Bridge, you see, had not brought them any nearer to the coast.
The country through which the Kippet flowed was changeful scenery, but always beautiful and pleasant. Sometimes it was flat, sedgy meadowland, where the banks were boggy; sometimes the streams run through little forests and the shores were overhung with alders; and sometimes it passed close by a farm with fords, where cattle drunk. At these places the travelers would either wait till nightfall, lest they be seen, or if the depth of the river permitted, Sophie would do her swimming underwater while the Doctor would go around by the roads and meet her further down.
While the going was, for the most part, easy for a seal, it was by no means always simple for the Doctor. The hundreds of hedges he had to get through, the walls he had to climb, the bogs he had to cross, made his part of the journey a hard and slow one. Sophie had to slacken her pace constantly and do a lot of loitering and waiting in order that he might keep up with her.
"Look here, Doctor," said she, about the middle of the second day when John Dolittle was resting on the bank, "it doesn't seem to me there is really any need for you to come further. This going is so easy for me I can do the rest of the journey by myself, can't I?"
"I think not," said the Doctor, lying back and gazing up at the willows over his head. "We don't know yet what sort of difficult places the river may run you into before it reaches the sea. We had better consult some other waterfowl, as the ducks said we should, before we go further."
Just at that moment a pair of fine bitterns flew down into the stream not far away and started feeding. The Doctor called them and they came up at once to his side.
"Would you please tell us," said John Dolittle, "how much further the river runs before it reaches the sea?"
"Counting all the bends and wiggles," said the bitterns, "about sixty miles."
"Dear me!" said the Doctor. "Then we are barely halfway yet. What kind of country does it pass through? This seal wishes to swim all the way to the coast, and we must avoid having people see her on the way."
"Well," said the birds, "you will have plain sailing for another ten miles yet. But after that there are several places pretty dangerous for a seal to travel. The first one is Hobb's Mill. It's a water mill, you understand, and the stream is dammed up with a high dam, a weir and a big water wheel. She'll have to leave the water at Hobb's Mill and join it again below."
"All right," said the Doctor. "we can do that, I imagine. Then, what's the next trouble?"
"The next is a town. It isn't a large one, but it has machinery buildings in it on the river bank. And the river is made to run into pipes to turn these machines, and if your seal went floating down the pipes she'd get all mixed up in the machinery."
"I understand," said the Doctor. "Then we'll have to go around the town by land--after dark."
"Go around to the right," said the bitterns--"to the northward. On the other side the machinery-men's houses spread out a long way.
"After that you'll be all right till you get very nearly to the sea. But there you will meet with another town--a port. Your seal can't possibly swim through that town because the river flows over many little waterfalls and rapids right where the houses and bridges are thickest. So as soon as you come in sight of the port you had better leave the stream again, and make for the seashore at some lonely place to the north of it. You won't have far to go, but you'll have to do some stiff climbing, for the coast thereabouts is all high cliffs. If you get safely past the port without being caught your troubles will be over."
"Well, thank you very much," said the Doctor. "This knowledge will not most helpful to us. Now, I think we had better be getting on our way."
Then after wishing John Dolittle good luck, the bitterns went back to their feeding, and the Doctor proceeded along the bank with Sophie swimming in the river. They reached Hobbs's Mill just as evening was coming on. As soon as the Doctor had explored around the buildings to see that all was quiet and nobody abroad, Sophie got out of the stream and hobbled across a couple of meadows and joined the river below the mill-race on the other side. There they waited till the moon rose, and soon, with sufficient light for the Doctor to see his way along the shore, they went on again.
Coming in sight of the machinery town of which the bitterns had spoken, John Dolittle left Sophie with orders to duck under water if any one should pass that way, and went forward into the town to explore and get some food for himself.
Although most of the shops were shut at this hour, he managed to buy some sandwiches and fruit at a hotel. In making these purchases he noticed that his supply of money was getting very low. Indeed, he had only just enough to pay for what he had bought. However, never having bothered much about money, this did not disturb him. And after spending his last twopence to get his boots cleaned--they were frightfully muddy from all this boggy walking--he proceeded to explore a way for Sophie to come around the town by land.
The journey she would have to make on foot proved to be quite a long one. But the Doctor found a way over a chain of ponds, waterlogged meadows and a little brook which ran into the Kippet about two miles the other side of the town.
By the time he returned to Sophie the night was nearly passed, and they had to hurry to reach the river again before daylight came.
With Sophie safely back in the stream, John Dolittle decided he had better take a little sleep before going on. Sophie, too, was pretty weary, in spite of her anxiety to push on with all possible speed. So, asking a little moor-hen, who had her nest in the bank of the stream to mount guard and wake them on the approach of danger, they both took a nap--Sophie sleeping in the water, with her head poked out onto a stump, and the Doctor propped against a willow tree on the shore.
The sun was high in the heavens when he awoke, to find the moor-hen plucking at his sleeve.
"There's a farmer driving a team across the meadow," whispered the little bird. "He'll come right by here. He might not take any notice of you, but Sophie he couldn't miss. Get her to stick her head under the water. She's snoring like a foghorn, and I can't wake her up."
After the Doctor had made Sophie disappear beneath the water, and the danger of discovery was past, they started off once more and traveled all day and the following night toward the sea.
Gradually the landscape changed to a kind of scenery which, so far, they had not met with on their journey. The country, open turfy downs where sheep grazed, got rollier and hillier. And, finally, on the evening of the next day, they saw the lights of the seaport town twinkling in the distance. The land either side of it sloped upward to cliffs overlooking the Bristol Channel.
A little further down the stream roads ran either side of the river, presumably going into the town. Along these, every once in a while, coaches and carriages passed them on their way to the port.
Feeling that it would be unwise to go further by water, they now left the stream for the last time and hit out across country.
The Doctor made Sophie keep her bonnet on, and he had her cloak ready to throw over her at any minute, because there were many roads to cross, and farmhouses to pass upon the way.
About a mile had to be covered before they would reach the top of the long slope and come in sight of the sea beyond the cliffs. Picking out a line which would miss most of the barns on the downs, they proceeded steadily and slowly forward. On this upland country they met with many stone walls. And, though they were low enough for the Doctor to jump, they were too much for Sophie to manage and the Doctor had to lift her over.
She did not complain, but the uphill going was telling on her terribly. And when at last they came to a level stretch at the top, and the wind from the Channel beat in their faces, Sophie was absolutely exhausted and unable to walk another step.
The distance now remaining to the edge of the cliffs was not more than a hundred yards. Hearing the voices of people singing in a house near by, the Doctor began to fear that they might yet be discovered --even with the end of their long trip in sight. So, with poor Sophie in a state of utter collapse, he decided there was nothing for it but to carry her the remainder of the journey.
As he put the cloak about her he saw the door of the house open and two men come out. Hurriedly he caught the seal up in his arms and staggered with her toward the edge of the cliffs.
"Oh," cried Sophie when they had gone a few yards, "look, the sea! How fresh and nice it sparkles in the moonlight. The sea, the sea at last!"
"Yes, this is the end of your troubles, Sophie," the Doctor panted as he stumbled forward. "Give my regards to the herd when you reach Alaska."
At the edge John Dolittle looked straight downward to where the deep salt water swirled and eddied far below.
"Good-by, Sophie," he said with what breath he had left. "Good-by, and good luck!"
Then, with a last tremendous effort, he threw Sophie over the cliff into the Bristol Channel.
Turning and twisting in the air, the seal sped downward--her cloak and bonnet, torn off her by the rushing air, floating more slowly behind. And as she landed in the water the Doctor saw the white foam break over her and the noise of a splash gently reached his ears.
"Well," he said, mopping his brow with a handkerchief, "thank goodness for that! We did it, after all. I can tell Matthew that Sophie reached the sea and I didn't go to jail."
Then a cold shiver ran down his spine. A heavy hand had grasped his shoulder from behind.